


Strange Bedfellows

by Davechicken



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Abusive Past, M/M, Post TFA, Suicidal Ideation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-19 12:43:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10640103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Davechicken/pseuds/Davechicken
Summary: Kylo worries he's doomed. War makes for strange alliances.





	1. Chapter 1

Hux knows things aren’t going well. Actually, that’s something of an understatement. Things are going _very not well_. Badly. Some might even say _catastrophically_ bad, but he might have to send whoever said that off for reconditioning. Ever since the Starkiller… Kylo’s been withdrawn, nursing his wounds in private, skulking around like the universe is ending.

Once, Hux had been able to tease the tension out of him, to pull the hooks of rage and fear out, and coax the Knight to talk about what was worrying him. He’d found ways to calm him, and they’d reached a stable equilibrium. They’d been happy, until the prospect of finding the blasted uncle came back into play and spiralled him right back to the beginning again.

Hux hates Luke Skywalker with all of his being. He hates him, because he’s seen how the horrendous conditioning had affected the boy who became Kylo Ren. Fear of his own emotions, a guilt that he’d never live up to everyone’s expectations, a path of too-narrow steps for the young man to follow…

How could it ever be right? Denying someone love? Telling them to never feel? Turning them into a droid, into a weapon to be wielded? How could that ever be healthy? Hux knows enough about the Jedi to want every last one of them dead… but the distance had been helping. _He_ had been helping. Kylo had been better, and it would almost have been fine if he’d never thought of his family again. 

But no. One mention of _Skywalker_ , and all Hux’s carefully-woven control measures went flying. It split them apart, and lead to the clusterfuck chain-reaction of everything going to hell. 

And now Kylo won’t talk to him.

Hux stands by the wardrobe, psyching himself up to remove his uniform, when he hears the _SCREAM_ , the **crash** , the sound of a saber firing, and the screech of metal being sundered.

He’s through and into the next room, to see Kylo’s battle-scared face bathed in glowing, flickering red. He’s back to destroying things, then, and–

Hux’s eyes go down. The molten, broken mess… it’s his helmet. The one crutch he’d never truly let go of. The one thing he’d clung to. Although Hux had convinced him to take it off behind closed doors, he always suspected Kylo would almost rather not.

And now it’s in pieces, and he doesn’t know what that means.

Kylo’s eyes glow, the light of his blade dancing over the depths. He looks half-furious, half-terrified. A rage-filled teen, a petrified child, and a lost adult, all in one. 

“Kylo?”  


He looks like he’s balancing on one leg, in a storm, on top of a high and unsound pole. Buffeted from all sides, only still upright because the storm whips him in every direction, fast. 

Hux is afraid. He’s afraid for the first time in years, and it isn’t even for himself. 

“Kylo… _please_. Let me help you, I’m begging you.”  


“You can’t,” he croaks, his voice concealing tears.   


“I want to try. _Please_. I can help you. I can help you find your focus again.”  


Kylo lifts a hand, and sends Hux flying into the wall. He should be outraged, afraid, or… something. He isn’t, because this is more important than that. He trusts Kylo, even in extremis. He _knows_ him. He knows him maybe better than Kylo knows himself.

“I can’t– I– she _beat_ me. He… I’m… I _hate_ her…”  


“I know,” Hux says, pressing his hands into the wall behind him, ignoring the increasing pressure on his throat. “But you were injured.”  


“It’s not the point! She is untrained! She is–”  


“Stronger than you,” Hux says.  


The air in his lungs turns to steam, and his eyes drift slowly shut as the anger whirlwinds around him. Things go flying, and then… it all drops.

Hux drops.

He drops to his knees, and he gulps in air.

“The Leader will kill me, the minute he gets her.”  


“Then you need to kill him.”  


“I can’t even kill the girl,” Kylo snaps.  


“Then use her. Use her, and kill him.”  


“She will never trust me.” Kylo turns off the blade, and drops it. He’s a beaten man.  


Hux pushes back to his feet, and walks over to him. “We find a way,” he promises, and pulls Kylo to his chest. He’s not very good at initiating contact, but he _knows_ Kylo needs it, and that outweighs his reticence. 

Kylo crumples into him, a tremor like the world is ending. “How?”

“I’m working on it.”  



	2. Chapter 2

It isn’t easy to do. For one thing, the tech guys pitch five different fits about the potential for intrusive attacks, and tracking systems. Even after he orders them to make it work, he can see the misgivings in their eyes. Especially as he demands for all the work to be done off the books, which means _treason_. Or, most likely. They’re following orders, but that never lets anyone off the hook. Either they comply and risk it crashing down on their heads, or they report him and risk being pulled up for gross insubordination if his needs were legitimate.

The next hurdle is the _enemy_. He has to reach out to them, and he does so with Kylo’s comm.

Kylo’s ridiculously secretive about his private comm, but Hux is the only other living soul with access to it. Once, late at night, he’d whispered a request.

_If I die, please… let them know._

He hadn’t said ‘them who’, because he’d known. 

And it had rankled, but… he supposed it was one last act of kindness. Even if Kylo hated his family, hate was still part of love, in a way. It wasn’t an attempt to reconcile from beyond the pyre, it was a courtesy. A way for them to know, and a final line drawn in the sand. 

But Hux hopes to never need that for its intended purpose.

When Kylo sleeps, he dashes out a quick message, using the protocols he was shown. _Leia - we need to talk. Tell me how._

He doesn’t sign as himself, nor as Kylo, and he waits in the faint blue light of the screen until he’s almost delirious from exhaustion… and the message comes back. _Message received. Instructions follow. It’s good to hear from you - Mom._

Hux grinds his teeth, copies the details, and deletes the message.

***

The image of General Leia Organa flickers, and her frown is clear from a mile away.

“General,” she spits, “…where is my son?”  


“I sent the message on his behalf. I had his permission to contact you.” Not about this, but he’s playing sharp with his words. “This line is secure, and the Supreme Leader doesn’t know I’m talking to you.”  


“Why hasn’t my son called?”  


“Because… this is a delicate issue. Please, give me half an hour of your time. It could save his life.”  


That catches her attention, and although her brow is tight, she nods and says no more.

“As you are aware, the scavenger girl and your son… were engaged in combat. She bested your son, but he survived. Now… the Leader will try to seduce her to the Dark Side.”  


“Yes, I am aware of that,” Leia snips out, sharply.  


“And if he succeeds, he will have no use for Kylo.”  


“And you expect me to believe that you want the Leader gone?”  


“Yes. For two reasons: one being the safety of your son. As you can tell from my access to his comm, we are… close.” He won’t say anything more detailed, not yet. “And two: with him gone, the biggest threat to my safety is most assuredly you.”  


“You want to make a play for the Order.”  


“Quite.”  


“And you think I’d prefer you to him?”  


“Your son has told me enough of Snoke’s methodology for me to assure you that I _am_ better for the galaxy, even by your ‘standards’. I do not have the Force, and I have no interest in the Force.”  


“You steal children, General.”  


“So do you.”  


“No, we–”  


Hux puts a hand up. “Am I, or am I not, preferable to you if the alternative is your son dead, the girl Dark, and Snoke still alive?”

Leia looks at him. Really, really looks at him. “What are you asking me for?”

“The Leader will only truly be brought down by Force-sensitives, I know. We… would both benefit from a temporary alliance: your Jedi, and my Kylo. Once Snoke is done, we separate, and resume our hostilities.”  


“You won’t consider negotiation?”  


“I doubt you would concede enough for me to ever agree to your demands.”  


“But would you _consider_ it? Would you at least try?”  


Trying isn’t ‘yes’. And it could be that some form of settlement would benefit them, possibly, and… “I would entertain the notion, but I can’t promise I would ever agree.”

“Then I have one final condition: if we do this, I need to speak with my son. Even if it’s one time, and he never speaks to me again. Get him to contact me, three days from now, using the same protocols. You can be present on the call if you wish.”  


“I accept your terms,” he says, with a small nod. “You must keep this to yourself, and the Jedi. It must _not_ become public knowledge, in case your ranks are infiltrated. You would doom both me and your son if that happened.”  


“I’ve been at this game since before you were born,” Leia snaps. “Don’t presume to tell me how to do my job.”  


“Then I shall speak to you in three days,” he says, and cuts the line.  


Well. It went much better than he’d expected. Now he just has to convince Kylo to play along. 


	3. Chapter 3

Hux braces himself for impact when Kylo gets home. He needs to sort this out, and he needs to do it quickly. There’s three days to convince his lover of the benefits of a temporary alliance, and… a family reunion, of sorts. 

He never, in all his life, imagined he would be the one trying to broker a peace with the Organa-Skywalker line. He _hates_ them, so very, very much, but he loves Kylo, and he can’t lose him. He’s too pragmatic (and always has been) to cut them out completely, but the irony is not lost on him.

Kylo has no idea what’s happened until he sees Hux’s face. Hux isn’t sure if it’s the Force, or if his own Pazaak face fails around Kylo, but he can tell something’s up.

“What… what happened?”  


“Kylo, would you sit down with me for a moment?”  


“ _What. Happened?”_  


Okay, so he could, perhaps, have opened a little better. Hux waves at the couch, and waits for Kylo to lower his agitation enough to sit. 

“We need to have a plan, to ensure your safety.”  


That makes Kylo freeze, and Hux tries to pick his words very carefully. “The only way you are safe is if the Leader is… gone. And as you don’t feel able to do that alone, I reached out to people who–”

“ **NO**.”  


“Kylo, please just listen to me? The Resistance and the Jedi want Snoke gone. We want Snoke gone. It is a temporary… pooling of resources, to reach a mutually satisfactory conclusion.”  


“You called the Resistance?”  


“I used your comm. I spoke with y– with General Organa.”  


Kylo stands up, and starts to pace. Pacing is not a very Kylo thing to do, it is much more a Hux thing to do. But he paces, now, with his hands wringing as he does so. 

“We will co-operate as far as unseating the Leader, and then - after a brief, and likely pointless attempt at negotiation, we will continue our hostilities.”  


“And she agreed?”  


“She did. She wants to see Snoke dead, and she… hopes that during the negotiation, we can find some middle ground, some compromise.”  


“There _is_ no compromise with radicals like _her_. She’s an extremist!”  


“Yes, but we share a common goal. You don’t have to like her, or agree with her, or do anything but… have one conversation with her, but once that’s over, we combine for necessity, and we part ways.”  


“Have a conversation with her?”  


“Yes. It was her condition. She wants to speak to you in three days, but I can be present. She just wants… one last discussion with you. I’m happy to be there, or be on call…”  


“I need to think about it.”  


“I understand,” Hux says. “I’m sorry I didn’t consult you first, but I wanted to make sure it was possible.”  


“I… get that, but it’s still going to take me a while to work through how I feel about it.”  


“Do you need some space?” Hux asks, even though _he_ , personally, wants anything but.   


“I think… I think I might hit the dojo. Do some cardio. Shower. Then come back, and we can talk… if…?”  


Hux smiles. It’s still a little more distance than he’d like, but Kylo is working _with_ him again, and that’s not a bad thing at all. “Take all the time you need… within three days.”

“Give me three hours, tops.”  


***

Sure enough, Kylo comes home less than three hours later. He’s pink in the face, and his hair holds traces of the shower, but he walks straight up to Hux and grabs him in a very unexpected hug.

Kylo has two modes: don’t touch me, and don’t stop. Hux has had to get used to the sudden influx of physical contact, which normally makes him minutely flinch until he remembers he actually likes it.

“Thank you,” comes the whisper, from by his neck. “I know you must have hated calling her.”  


“I did. After what she did to you…”  


The fingers tighten. “You… it… I’m grateful. It’s a plan I’d never have been brave enough to try.”

Brave enough to face his family, and brave enough to ask Hux to agree. Hux feels a pang of pain that Kylo wouldn’t feel able to ask him, but then… he did trust him with his private comm, and give him the access to _do it_ , so in a way, he already had. 

Kylo curls up onto the couch with him, lying almost over him, and Hux cradles his head under his chin, kissing at his hair and stroking over his arm. “I know it won’t be easy - for either of us - but we need to do it. For your sake, and also for mine.”

“I know you worried that… it would make me go back to them, but it won’t,” Kylo insists. “I won’t ever leave you, not unless you order me to. And even then, I’m going to fight to stay with you.”  


It had been a worry, but not one he would ever have voiced. Hux cuddles him all the harder, so glad they’ve found some way to do this, to… talk about things. It had not been easy getting this far, and the whole _Skywalker_ thing had very nearly broken the whole delicate, intricate balance… but he has his Kylo back. His Kylo with the shocking levels of personal honesty, and the gauntlet thrown down for Hux to reciprocate. 

“I’m glad,” he says, through a choke in his throat. “I don’t want to think about life without you. I’ll do _whatever_ it takes to keep you by my side.”  


Because at some point, he became the goal, and not the means to it. 

“Can we go to bed?” Kylo asks.  


“Of course,” Hux replies, and lets his lover rise first.   


He feels that familiar, gyroscopic action in his core. Kylo is the point around which everything revolves, from which ‘up’ and ‘down’ derive. Kylo.

No one else would ever push Hux to treason, or to collaborating with the Resistance. No one could come close.


	4. Chapter 4

Hux is more nervous this time around than the last. This time, he has to face the very real possibility that Kylo might take one look at his mother, and flip. He might run away forever, or he might decide to side with Snoke, after all. It’s such an emotive event that it makes Kylo unreliable again. 

He’d worked so hard to help him get over that, to give him a place, a home, a purpose. They had been _happy_ , at least for a while.

And now his lover must hate him as much as he loves him, as they enter the private, shielded holo-conference chamber.

Knowing that his efforts could be so quickly undone, that all his attempts to help could be scuppered by one of two groups who didn’t - actually - care about Kylo’s happiness as much as Hux did… it hurt. It hurt that Kylo might side with people who had done such horrible things to him, instead of someone who (with all his flaws) would do almost anything _for_ him… it hurt a lot.

And still Hux is sure it is the right thing to do. He wouldn’t be responsible for more abuse. He wouldn’t be one to force Kylo to do something he ‘thought’ was ‘best’ for him. If he truly wanted to go, Hux… would have to let him.

“You can ask me to leave at any time,” Hux offers. “I won’t be offended.”  


“No. If… if we’re serious, together, then you deserve to know everything. Including… about my family.”  


“I still want you to know you can change your mind,” Hux insists. “But I will be by your side whenever you need me.”  


Hux has never put someone else first, ever. _Something_ else, yes, but not a person. It’s strange, feeling that intense protectiveness and ambition about someone else. Very strange.

***

The blue picture flickers into life, and the short, slightly wizened woman steps forwards.

Kylo isn’t wearing his mask. Well, he destroyed it, and hasn’t had another made yet. Hux glances sidelong at him, and then back to the woman.

“Ben…”  


“That is not my name,” Kylo says, his voice oddly… flat, all of a sudden. No intonation. Droid-like, if the droid was badly programmed.  


“I’m sorry, it’s… it’s just I haven’t seen you in so long…”  


“That’s because I left,” Kylo points out. “And I didn’t want to see you.”  


Her jaw twitches, and Hux sees the emotions play across her face. He wonders if it runs in both sides of the family, or if it’s just her bloodline, because Kylo does the same thing when he’s emotionally compromised. 

“Can I call you Kylo, then?”  


He shrugs. “Why do you want to talk to me? I have nothing to say to you that you’d want to hear.”

“I do want to hear it. I don’t agree with what you’re doing, but I need to - I want to - understand _why_. I… want to know what we did wrong.”  


Hux snorts, and rolls his eyes. 

“Do you have some insight you’d like to share?” Leia asks, her voice steely.  


“See, Mom! Right there! You say you want to learn, and you’re already angry because someone knows more than you!”

Kylo’s defence of him is… nice. Weird, but nice. “Kylo, it’s okay–”

“No, it isn’t. She says she wants to know: well there you go. You don’t like other people challenging you. You don’t like admitting you’re wrong. You and Dad were constantly fighting. Over _everything_. Dad hated me because of the Force, and because I wasn’t like him, and you thought you were a great mom, but you were busy with everything else. So what if you loved me, you still _hurt_ me. You didn’t protect me. You let me get so low the only thing I could do that wasn’t fucking kill myself was go with someone and hope he’d stop _torturing me_.”  


“Kylo… I’m not perfect, but your father and I never hated you.”  


“You know what I could hear, right before he died? First it was all a diatribe about how women always know, and how he didn’t think he could do anything to save me, because I was too much like my grandfather.”  


“Your father didn’t think he was a good enough man to do what your uncle did,” Leia replies. “He was afraid of not being a good enough father for you, as he never knew his own. And he–”  


“So? He had a _kid_. I didn’t ask to be born, but you two either wanted me, or didn’t want to kill a mistake. _You_ had me. And you should have been ready for me.”  


“We tried! We weren’t perfect, but we tried!”  


“So did I, only I was a child, and it was harder for me. I didn’t have years of experience. I had impossible standards to live up to, and everyone hated me for being your son, and everyone immediately thought I was going to turn into a mass-murderer every time I had a childish temper-tantrum.”  


Hux wonders if they were right, and Kylo was always going to be this, or if it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Not that he doesn’t _love_ Kylo, but he has… well… gone to the Dark and killed people. 

Not that Leia Organa or Luke Skywalker haven’t killed people.

“What do you want me to say? I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t make you feel safe. I’m sorry we weren’t perfect people. I’m sorry we weren’t there to shield you from everything. What you wanted… wasn’t possible.”  


“Then maybe you shouldn’t have had me.”  


Leia’s eyes close, pained. “No. You… have done bad things, but that doesn’t mean your existence was a mistake. You… also brought great love, and joy.”

“And you think that outweighs pain? Don’t you think the galaxy would have been better without Darth Vader? If Obi-Wan had left Anakin to die on Tatooine?”  


Hux… hurts. Kylo honestly thinks it would have been better not to exist? This isn’t helping, not one bit. He puts his hand on Kylo’s upper arm, trying to tug him back. “Ky…”

“I’m not finished.”  


“I think you are,” Hux says, gently. “General Organa: as you can see, your upbringing of your son left him thinking the galaxy would be better if he didn’t _exist_. And whilst you might have a point about no one being perfect, I would say that is a rather serious oversight.”  


“I never wanted you to not exist,” Leia says, her voice pained. “I love you. I have always loved you. I am… I am so sorry for how you feel, but what you’ve done… you can come back from it. There’s still Light in you.”  


“It doesn’t matter if there’s Light. The Darkness is enough to damn me,” Kylo snaps, his eyes brimming.  


“There’s Dark in me. In your father. In your uncle. We’re not damned.”  


“ **THEN WHY AM I THE ONE WHO KILLED SO MANY?** ”

“You aren’t the only one,” Leia insists. “Please. I’m not… I’m not asking you to pretend we were the perfect parents, but that monster - that _thing_ \- he is evil. That’s your real enemy, and ours. When he’s gone… please know we can find some way for this to work.”  


“The Republic would never forgive me,” Kylo snorts. “Not that I’m sure I even want them to.”  


“Stop a war, and you’ll see.”  


Hux squeezes Kylo’s arm again. He’s not sure if this has helped or not. He hopes so. He hopes the airing of problems - of grievances - has helped, but he’s also terrified that Kylo genuinely wants to stop existing. That’s not something he can ignore, not at all.

“I think this conversation has gone on long enough,” Hux says. “If Kylo wishes to speak to you again, then we’ll arrange it. But I think he needs some time to… recover.”  


Kylo shakes his hand off. “I’m fine.”

“I understand,” Leia says. “Thank you for… agreeing to speak with me, Kylo. I am truly sorry for what you’ve been through, and I don’t agree with everything you’ve done, but… I still love you, and I always will. If you… can accept any truce, or… connection… I would fight with every last breath in me for that.”  


“I don’t know,” the Knight says. “I really don’t. Snoke first. Everything else can wait.”  


“May the Force be with you,” Leia whispers, and cuts the line.  



End file.
